Easter in New Zealand will this year consist of a nationwide egg hunt with a twist, as the country nears the end of its second week in lockdown.
The novel idea was announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who has suggested Kiwi children confined to their homes should get involved in a countrywide Easter egg hunt, but without leaving their abodes.
The country's five million residents have been in lockdown for almost two weeks, and are only allowed outside to exercise or for essential trips to get supplies.
But Ardern had a special message for the country's children worried about the disruption to their Easter holiday this year.
During a press conference on Monday, she deemed both the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy vital workers for the New Zealand economy, thus granting them special status to break their quarantine "bubble" and visit Kiwi homes.
However, she also cautioned the public that this did not necessarily mean the Easter Bunny would this year be frequenting as many homes as it normally did.
"You'll be pleased to know, that we do consider both the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny to be essential workers," she said.
"As you can imagine at this time, they're going to potentially be quite busy at home with their family as well and their own bunnies.
"I say to the children of NZ that if the Easter Bunny doesn't make it to your household, we have to understand that it's a bit difficult at the moment for the bunny to get everywhere.
"But I have a bit of an idea."
Ardern then suggested that in lieu of being visited by the bunny, New Zealand children could create their own neighbourhood-wide Easter egg hunt this year. This would involve drawing a picture of an easter egg on a piece of paper and placing it in their front window, in a similar vein to the Ardern-endorsed teddy bear hunt of last week.
The nationwide teddy bear hunt was launched to help keep the country's children occupied, even if just for a while, during its coronavirus lockdown. Tens of thousands of homes took part, as did the prime minister.
Inspired by the popular children's book We're Going on a Bear Hunt, the real-life hunt asked children to place teddy bears in their street-facing windows, allowing little ones nearby to "hunt" for bears in their neighbourhoods. Ardern confirmed that she too had taken part, placing a bear in the front window of Premier House in Wellington, where she is in lockdown with her fiance, Clarke Gayford, and toddler, Neve.
The Easter egg hunt would be identical to that, but with colourful, hand-drawn Easter eggs.
After the press conference, in an Instagram post, Ardern fleshed out the idea – complete with a full stencil illustration, to be printed out and coloured in by eager children.
She even encouraged children to email their finished products to her parliamentary email, or post them on social media with #NZEggHunt, so she could share them herself.
"I’m wondering if you’ll help me create an Easter egg hunt for all the children in your neighbourhood?" Ardern wrote.
"You can draw your own Easter egg, or you can colour in the one that some of my clever friends helped to make. All you have to do is colour it in or decorate it, and pop it in your window for other kids to find. I'd also love to see your designs."
And less than a few hours later, some New Zealand children had already started:
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
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Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
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Generational responses to the pandemic
Devesh Mamtani from Century Financial believes the cash-hoarding tendency of each generation is influenced by what stage of the employment cycle they are in. He offers the following insights:
Baby boomers (those born before 1964): Owing to market uncertainty and the need to survive amid competition, many in this generation are looking for options to hoard more cash and increase their overall savings/investments towards risk-free assets.
Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980): Gen X is currently in its prime working years. With their personal and family finances taking a hit, Generation X is looking at multiple options, including taking out short-term loan facilities with competitive interest rates instead of dipping into their savings account.
Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996): This market situation is giving them a valuable lesson about investing early. Many millennials who had previously not saved or invested are looking to start doing so now.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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TV: BeIN Sports
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